posted at 11:58 am on June 24, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

The truce between Israel and Hamas managed to last five entire days before Hamas launched rockets at Israeli civilians. Islamic Jihad launched the attack as a response to an Israeli raid on their West Bank operations in which two IJ terrorists were killed, including one of their commanders. MS-NBC seems sympathetic to IJ’s claims that Israel broke the cease-fire:

Militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip fired at least two rockets into southern Israel on Tuesday, breaching a five-day-old cease-fire.

The attack came hours after Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in a West Bank raid. The victims included an Islamic Jihad commander. The militant group later claimed responsibility for firing the rockets, saying the attack was intended to avenge the Israeli operation.

The West Bank is not formally part of the Gaza truce. But the Israeli raid could be seen as violating the spirit of the cease-fire.

Say what? The Israelis didn’t attack Gaza, and they didn’t attack Hamas. They continued to work against those who plot to kill Israelis, and Islamic Jihad — the third leg in the Palestinian Triangle Strategy — has no standing in the cease-fire. How can MS-NBC “see” this as violating the “spirit” of the cease fire?

Hamas claimed Gaza as its territory and has responsibility for any actions that come out of the Strip. They agreed to the cease fire for Gaza and now have to account for the actions of their partners. If they can’t stop the missile attacks, then they have no standing to negotiate cease-fires at all.

More likely, this is the beginning of another Triangle Strategy play. Two Palestinian parties agree to a cease-fire agreement with the Israelis, while the third continues their attacks and their operations. When the Israelis respond, the other two claim that the Israelis broke their word and are the aggressors, and the cease-fire collapses.

Not even the Palestinians fall for this game any longer. Unfortunately, MS-NBC is more gullible than most.